Review: Dagmarr's Dimanche (Crazy Coqs)

Review by Stephen Gilchrist

 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I must admit, before last night I’d never heard of Hersh Dagmarr. If not his biggest fan before, I’m now certainly a fan of this eccentric, eclectic performer whose wonderful voice wraps itself around Piaf, Weill, Kylie Minogue, and Sondheim with equal ease. Dagmarr is a London based, self described ‘queer,’ French cabaret artist who claims inspiration from the grand German 'kabaret' era mixed with his own background as a jazz singer.  He says, "I was there during the grand Weimar era… I’m telling you.”

So first, a word about Weimar cabaret. Weimar cabaret was a feature of late 1920s Germany. It has become known for its high living, vibrant urban life and the popularisation of new styles of music and dance. Having previously lived under an authoritarian government, where entertainment and social activities were tightly regulated, many Germans thrived on the relaxed social attitudes of Weimar. The influx of American money and the economic revival of the mid to late 1920s encouraged celebration, spending, and decadence.

At Crazy Coqs, this flamboyant gender bender artist absolutely nailed the art of kabaret, as a chanteur /chanteuse, wrapping the audience around his little finger.  He has said that “My interest in music is quite polar. It’s equally coming from a faraway past and a distant future. Like some kind of haunting past life.” He enters stage left, louche, hair carefully bouffant. He appears in a dark cape, a cross between Dietrich and Bowie handsomely dressed, an enigmatic figure, slightly spooky, Emcee-like, embodying the decadence and impending doom of the period he sings about

This set, accompanied beautifully by Karen Newby, who opens proceedings by a riff on Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto no. 1, is, to say the least, extraordinary in its range. There is much Piaf, sung in its original French (Dagmarr does not patronise his audience with English lyrics), moving into a hint of Weill, and some Cole Porter (the little heard Merman number,  ‘Down in the Depths of the 90th Floor’) and even some Sondheim ('More' from Dick Tracy). It is all about love longed for, love found, and love lost, and slightly disreputable in the Weimar style.

His set consisted of some twenty items including a terrific mashup of Minogue’s ‘Can’t Get You Out of my Head’ and ‘I Believe in You’ sung to a bit of ‘Mack the Knife.’ There is a take on Marlene Dietrich (‘Ruins of Berlin’) and, dressed now in a fur stoll, an encore performance of Herman’s ‘I am What I Am’ via Dinah Washington’s ‘Long John Blues,’ some of the lyrics to which provides some sort of guide to this sardonic set.

“I’ve got a dentist who's over seven feet tall

Yes, I've got a dentist who's over seven feet tall

Long John they call him, and he answers every call

Well, I went to Long Johns office and told him the pain was killin'

Yes, I went to Long Johns office and told him the pain was killin'

He told me not to worry, that my cavity just needed fillin”

Well, you get the gist of it! This was the theme of the show – innuendo, a hint of the immoral with and some underlying sadness. Dagmarr has a wonderful voice and is ideally suited to the material he delivers with style and elegance. He totally captures the audience with his inter-song chitter chatter, underscored by keys, a little heavily (my one reservation).

Dagmarr broke up his set to introduce a guest artist, Enrico Touche, a unique ‘cod’ magician in the style of Tommy Cooper and probably the only talking mime(!) and looking like a mad cross between Chaplin and a barmy Marcel Marceau. Very funny and extremely entertaining. Dagmarr dresses with exquisite chic, and he immerses himself in character. Or rather, he is the character. A character with a voice, powerful, formidable and wide ranging, and, at the same time, fragile. A class act and well worth visiting.

Dagmarr’s Dimanche played at Brasserie Zedel’s Crazy Coqs on September 14th 2025

For information of future Hersh Dagmarr shows visit https://www.hershdagmarr.com

Photos by Ian Archer